MUTH'S TRUTHS 05/09/2013

GOP COUNTY CHAIR DEBATE

Put it on your calendar NOW! 

Citizen Outreach and KDWN 720 AM will be hosting a debate between Clark County Republican Party Chairman Cindy Lake and her challenger in the July election, Dave McKeon, at our monthly First Friday Happy Hour event on Friday, June 7, 2013!

KDWN’s Alan Stock will moderate the “Bahama Breeze Brawl.”  Citizen Outreach President Chuck Muth and Citizen Outreach CEO Dan Burdish will be the Grand Inquisitors.  We’ll let you know sometime next week how you can submit questions for possible inclusion.

Our regular happy hour will run from 5-6 p.m.  Network, have a couple drinks, chow down on some onion rings…and then getting ready for sparks to fly during the one-hour, no-holds-barred, to-and-fro between these two individuals who want to lead the Clark County GOP into the 2014 election cycle.

Venue: Las Vegas Bahama Breeze on the northwest corner of Flamingo and Paradise in the Hughes Center.  $5 donation requested at the door.  Seating limited, so get there early.

CONSERVATIVES OPPOSED TO THE INTERNET TAX

I will remind you that only ONE Nevada legislator, Assemblyman Wes Duncan, voted “No” on the Internet tax resolution.  I’ll also note that U.S. Sen. Dean Heller opposes this so-called/misnamed “Marketplace Fairness Act.” 

But Duncan and Heller are far from alone when it comes to national CONSERVATIVEopposition to this scheme to suck more money out of YOUR wallet.  Here’s a partial list of conservative opponents, in addition to, of course, our own opposition here at Citizen Outreach…

• Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform
• Jenny Beth Martin, Co-Founder, Tea Party Patriots
• Matt Kibbe, President, FreedomWorks
• Tim Phillips, President, Americans for Prosperity
• Brent Bozell, Chairman, For America
• Mike Needham, CEO, Heritage Action for America
• The Hon. George Allen, Former Governor and US Senator
• Tom Schatz, President, Citizens Against Government Waste
• Duane Parde, President, National Taxpayers Union
• David Bossie, President, Citizens United
• Phyllis Schlafly, President, Eagle Forum
• The Hon. Jim Ryun, Chairman, The Madison Project
• The Hon. Ken Blackwell, President, Constitutional Congress, Inc.
• Al Regnery, Former Publisher, American Spectator
• Wayne Crews, Vice President, Competitive Enterprise Institute
• J. Michael Smith, Esq., President, HSLDA
• John Dodd, President, Jesse Helms Center Foundation
• Craig Shirley, Chairman, Citizens for the Republic
• Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com
• Lew Uhler, President, National Tax Limitation Committee
• Jeff Mazzella, President, Center for Individual Freedom
• Karen Kerrigan, President & CEO, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

So what, exactly, are some the conservative arguments against this Internet tax grab? A sampling (h/t Heartland Institute)…

• “The Republican Party is supposed to oppose tax increases and burdensome, unnecessary government regulations. But sometimes, they lose their way.  The most recent example is support by some Republicans for the misnamed Marketplace Fairness Act, which should really be called the Internet Tax Mandate. This mandate is nothing more than a huge tax increase on the American people backed by lobbyists and some state governments. I must admit, I am disappointed that some in my party are backing this ill-advised bill.” – Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky)

• “This is nothing but a money grab. This is nothing but State’s wanting billion dollars in new revenue because they don’t want to cut spending and they don’t have the political courage to raise taxes which in my opinion is a bad idea...It is a disaster. If this passes the people who vote for it will regret the day they do.” –Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida)

• “The Internet is a thriving ecosystem of entrepreneurial freedom that should be protected and nourished. ... But tax-hungry politicians view the Internet as yet another source of revenue to bail out their big-spending governments. The misleadingly titled Marketplace Fairness Act is a job-killing tax hike, plain and simple. It is, in effect, a national Internet sales tax, which would hammer the little guy and benefit giant corporations.” – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

• “At its core, this is a nationally mandated Internet sales tax on businesses. Once a single state demands these sales tax collections under the new law, businesses in every other state would be forced to comply with that state's tax laws. Dozens of states are eagerly waiting to raise those taxes, as soon as Washington opens the floodgates.” – Former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint

• “I’m opposed to the internet sales tax. Call me a conservative, but I believe the right approach to tax fairness is to reduce rates—not force higher rates onto others. States that want their businesses to be more competitive in the marketplace should engage in a race to the lowest tax rate rather than seek to level the playing field by imposing higher taxes and new burdens on competitors and consumers.” – Rep. Tom Grave (R-Georgia)

• “By imposing this new Internet Tax, states would suddenly be empowered to force online retailers to simultaneously comply with all the different tax codes of all the states in which their customers reside. That’s no small feat. From what I’m told, there are nearly 10,000 state, local, and municipal tax codes nationwide. And while complying with so many codes might not be a big deal for large online retailers, it’s a huge burden on the little guys.” – Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)

• “Raising prices on goods purchased over the Internet will also impose an additional hardship on American consumers, many of whom are already struggling because of the troubled economy.  And giving ravenous state governments new authority to tax sales made by out-of-state businesses practically guarantees future sales tax hikes, as the arguments will be made that most of the increases will fall on out-of-state businesses.  These businesses will lack effective ability to oppose the tax increases — a form of taxation without representation.” – Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)

• “This is taxation without representation on stilts. The Marketplace Fairness Act would allow nearly 10,000 governments to abuse businesses – with no recourse for businesses. Because they don’t live in the relevant jurisdictions and can’t vote to oust the abusers. Governments need to stop looking for ever more revenue streams – and instead just stop spending.” – Seton Motley, President, Less Government

• “The proposed bill is anything but 'fair,' and it is both economically destructive and contrary to the logic of federalism.” – Timothy H. Lee, Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs, Center for Individual Freedom

• “One day I will have a scorecard for conservatives. And those Republicans who vote for the Marketplace Fairness Act in any form will be blackballed from that scorecard.” - Erick Erickson, Founder of RedState.com and FoxNews contributor

• “If truth-in-labeling rules applied to Congress, the proposed law giving states the power to collect sales tax from out-of-state online retailers would be named the Marketplace Unfairness Act. … (T)he legislation would strip away protections that have been in place for decades, unleashing tax-hungry states on merchants to whom they aren’t answerable and tilting the playing field against small Internet retailers.” – Jeff Jacoby, columnist, Boston Globe

• “In a burst of the bipartisanship we are told to revere, a coalition of Republican and Democratic senators rose above party differences last week to affirm class solidarity. They moved toward a tax increase of at least $22 billion to benefit the political class at the state and local levels. … One reason the Republican-controlled House should reject this tax increase is that much of the revenue will be passed on to public employees and, through their unions, to Democrats’ campaigns.” – George Will, columnist, Washington Post

Now…please explain to me again why only ONE Republican in the entire state Legislature was a “No” vote on this bill?